HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Christopher Randall had to be talked
into going to a taping of the CBS game-show "Let's Make a Deal."

"My co-worker was a 'Let's Make a Deal' fan, and for me it
was pretty random," Randall, a 36-year-old Huntsville resident, says. "I didn't really watch the show. 'No,
no, no. I'm not going to do that.' But she twisted my arm and I'm glad I went
because I had a really good time.'"

Not only did Randall, a Marshall Space Flight Center aerospace
engineer, and co-worker Julie Clift – who were in Southern California for a
NASA recruiting trip - get a chance to be a part of the "Let's Make a Deal"
audience at Hollywood's Sunset Bronson Studios, Randall was selected to be a
contestant .

The "Let's Make a Deal" episode Randall competed on, which was
taped Oct. 29, will broadcast 9 a.m. March 14 on Huntsville CBS affiliate WHNT-19.

The process

Tickets for "Let's Make a Deal," which is hosted by Wayne
Brady, are free. But there's a process, Randall says, "You stand outside the
studio and they let as many people in as their facility can hold, and so when
you go in, you get the option to rent a costume or you can bring your own, so
you have a lot of people standing there outside in their
costumes.

"You go in and they're looking to see what kind of energy
you have, so you have to scream and yell and dance around and those types of
things, so the more entertaining you are the more likely the chances of them
ushering you into the studio. So once you're in the studio, of course, the show
begins and you have to keep up that level of energy for a very long time. About
two hours, maybe a little bit more.

"There
are a lot of people in the background (on the set) that you never see on television but they're
all over the place, from sound men to lighting folks to production crew and
staff, musicians. It's
an exhausting process. It was so hot in
there. Everyone was sweating profusely, so I was more worried about sweat
stains showing up on my flight suit then I was about trying to get (Brady's) attention. [Laughs.]

You got the look

Randall and Clift's costumes made a lot of sense, given
their employer. "I rented an astronaut costume," Randall says. "It was a flight
suit and a matching hat. It was like a baseball cap, they didn't do the helmet. The flight
suit was orange and it was too small for me but I had to wear it anyway. [Laughs.]" Clift also wore a flight suit
on the show, a blue number she'd previously purchased at Huntsville's U.S. Space & Rocket Center and
brought with her that day.

Energy boost

"It was funny," Randall says, "because I don't think either
one of us was being super-energetic until Wayne Brady announced he was about to
select the last contestant for the day. So when they announced they were going
to make their final selection, Julie and I decided we were going to try and
give it all we had and hopefully one of us would get selected. And (Brady) just
randomly turned to me and said, 'Hey, astronaut' and I wasn't sure if he was
pointing at me or Julie."

The name of the game

Randall can't recall the name of the "Let's Make a Deal" game
he played on onstage. A public relations representative for the show later
confirms the game is called Marbles.

Brady bunch

Randall says Brady, a
multi-Emmy Award winner for his work on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
and ""The Wayne Brady Show" - has mad skills as a game-show host. "He
was phenomenal. Really funny guy and he is extremely quick on his toes, as far
as improv goes. Any time something happened in the audience or looked a certain
way, he knew how to play off it and make good television out of it."